One OS to Rule Them All by Greg (@lombaki)
If you’ve read any of my posts, you know by now that I love revisiting old tech to see where we’ve been, how far we’ve come, and forecast where we might go. I think we can all agree that cell phones aren’t just phones anymore. They haven’t been since their integration with email and PDAs. They are, in fact, mobile computing devices.
Research in Motion went front a two-way pager company to a mobile computing company. That was a big stretch. Apple went from a standard computer company to a mobile computing company. That wasn’t such a stretch. I believe that’s why Apple has done so well, but they used an entirely different OS for the phone. BlackBerry was up against a major learning curve and before they realized that Java wouldn’t cut it, it was far too late.
Another story:. Vizio was a “Late to market” TV maker. Now they are a tablet and laptop maker. Both of those are mobile computing devices. Of course they used Android for the tab and Windows for the laptops, so no need for OS development.
One more: Microsoft. They are merging the OS into “One to rule them all!”. The OS on your PC will be the one on your tablet, will be the one on your laptop, will be the one on your phone…
So my question is, with QNX and BB10, has RIM found an OS that would not only run your phone and tablet, but other mobile computing devices such as a laptop? One OS to rule them all? I think they could.
If BB10 proves as solid and amazing as it seems, I think BlackBerry *could* port it to laptops. Imagine the synergy! With Bridge working through all 3 devices, with the security that companies want, and with the flow of the OS, I can foresee the possibility of them pushing into that market.
Would you buy a BB10 Laptop? What advantages could you see in having a unified BBOS? What shortcomings might there be? Would it run Office or would DocsToGo be updated to be more compatible? Might it be something among the lines of the ASUS TaiChi? In any case, BlackBerry has entered the mobile computing arena. The question is, how deep in will they delve?
